Nation Digest
Study finds caffeine may worsen diabetes

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The team at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina found a strong correlation between caffeine intake at mealtime and increased glucose and insulin levels among people with type 2 diabetes.

The findings, published in the journal Diabetes Care, are significant enough that the researchers recommend people with diabetes consider reducing or eliminating caffeine from their diets.

The American Diabetes Association says that at least 90 percent of the 17 million Americans diagnosed with diabetes have type 2, in which the body either does not produce enough insulin or cells ignore the insulin, which the body needs to convert food into energy.

Toughkenamon, Pa.

Small plane crashes into hangar; 4 die

A small plane crashed into an airport hangar and burst into flames yesterday, killing all four people aboard, authorities said.

The single-engine propeller plane crashed about 4:15 p.m. EDT at New Garden Airport, about 20 miles southwest of Philadelphia in Chester County, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said.

Peters said the Piper Arrow PA28 had been performing touch-and-go landings and struck the side of the hangar.

New Garden Township police Lt. Kevin McCarthy said the victims were two men, ages 38 and 45, and two boys, ages 8 and 12. Their names were not immediately released.

Sterling Heights, Mich.
 
Suspect in cop's death kills self during raid

A man suspected of killing a Michigan police officer sitting in his patrol car committed suicide early yesterday as officers raided the Florida home in which he was staying, authorities said.

Timothy Berner, 33, shot himself in the head around 5 a.m. EDT in Jacksonville, Fla., Sterling Heights Police Chief Barnett Jones said.

The bullet went through a wall of the home, striking a deputy U.S. marshal in the arm, the U.S. Marshals Service said.

Berner was accused of shooting Officer Mark Sawyers, 30, the night of June 4 in a parking lot in Sterling Heights, near Detroit.

Authorities got a tip about Berner from a viewer of the TV show "America's Most Wanted."

Arlington, Texas

Wrong pilot stopped for violating airspace

Police detained a family after Arlington, Texas, airport authorities mistakenly reported their small plane had violated a no-fly zone near President Bush's Crawford ranch. In the confusion, the pilot they were seeking left.

Pilot Del Hinton, his wife, daughter and a friend landed at Arlington Municipal Airport Saturday after a trip to a casino in Shreveport, La. As soon as Hinton taxied his six-passenger plane into his hangar, an airport employee told him the Secret Service wanted to question him about his illegal flight through Waco.

"I tried to tell them we had come from Shreveport, but they wouldn't listen. I was on the radar the whole time," Hinton told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for its editions yesterday.

Police eventually determined that the small plane suspected of flying through Waco had landed at the airport about 10 minutes before Hinton's. Sgt. Sharon Warms said the pilot is not believed to have intentionally violated restricted airspace.